Intisar Abioto: Photographer, Dancer, Explorer

Black Portlands

In this talk I'll dive into creative discoveries behind my recently published zine, Black Portlands. I'm continually interested and inspired by the multiple histories and presents of Black creative life in Portland. For this publication and mini-project, I photographed and interviewed Black creatives across disciplines about their creative journeys in PDX. Many lessons were learned in the process, many insights found! I'll share in-depth on the lessons learned from the interviews and the many creative illuminations found along the way.

Intisar Abioto is an adventurer, dancer, photographer, and writer. With a research focus on the global African Diaspora, her unique form of story inquiry as a way of life has taken her from Memphis to Berlin to Djibouti, seeking the authentic stories of people within the diaspora. She's the creator of The Black Portlanders, an ongoing photo essay and exploratory blog imaging people of African descent in Portland, Oregon. This work led into field research around Black life in Oregon as lead photographer for the Urban League of Portland’s State of Black Oregon 2015. She recently released her first publication, Black Portlands.